Letter: State needs government with 21st century ideas

Thank you for Morton Marcus’ truth-telling column April 2 (“State economic sluggishness follows well-established trend”). Indiana is not the economic success that Gov. Mike Pence and his tea party/Libertarian allies tout in their propaganda to the media.

It is bad and getting worse, and our “representatives” spend their time tilting at ideological windmills instead of dealing with real problems like decaying infrastructure, declining income and ineffective education. I would rather deal with a flaming liberal instead of a flaming conservative. At least the liberal cares about people.

I believe that ideology is the enemy of 21st century civilization. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is just one more bad scene in the ideological nightmare spreading across this nation. Union busting, guns everywhere even on campuses and in churches, foxes in the hen house of nearly all regulatory commissions, trickle-down economics, denying global warming — the list marches on.

The religious and political ideology of conservatives in America and elsewhere is insidious. Instead of working constructively with the diverse population and wide spectrum of cultural values and social customs in our developed countries to resolve 21st century problems, conservatives are dedicated to steamrolling their unique cultural values and idealized solutions on everybody.

I dream that millions of savvy voters will go to the polls and send the tea party and Koch Libertarians back to their Neanderthal caves with their 19th century fantasies. Let’s give ourselves a 21st century government that works for ordinary people instead of large donors and corporations.